Saddle Comfort

Newbie Questions:
I've just started climbing and I bought an entry level kit with a New Tribe Tengu saddle. I've played around quite a bit with the fit and it's reasonably comfortable. It pinches a bit around the waist, even when I'm sitting upright. It's very comfortable in the thighs and butt.
The first question that I have is whether there is an adjustment that can be made to alleviate this.
Second question is if anybody has tried adding a rope bridge between the two D-loops at the waist. It seems that this might spread the forces outwards a bit.
Thanks.

The NT harnesses excel at leg comfort but depending on your body type you can lose a little comfort on the waist belt. The problem the belt is designed to sit above the hips which can pinch and squeeze the lower rib cage for some climbers.

I improved comfort on my NT Tengu by changing the the pitch slightly, so I tilt back a little which improves the load balance between the leg straps and the waist belt. However I'm pretty skinny, usually a heavier climber doesn't want to be pitched back, it increases work per stroke during ascent.

I change the pitch by using a split tail hitch anchored to the leg strap D, and the "up rope" anchored to the main saddle anchor screwlink. If you're not familiar with split tail climbing this is not a good option.

THe NT Nikosi saddle might be a better choice for you, it has a floating anchor bridge built in and has adjuster straps to change your hangle/pitch.

I saw a modification a climber did to convert a standard NT harness design into a floating anchor bridge, I'll see if I can dig it up. Probably won't work to put a rope bridge on the side D's the hang angle would be painful, more thought needed.
-AJ

moss wrote:

I saw a modification a climber did to convert a standard NT harness design into a floating anchor bridge, I'll see if I can dig it up. Probably won't work to put a rope bridge on the side D's the hang angle would be painful, more thought needed.
-AJ

Moss,
Thanks, the rib cage is exactly where the saddle is pinching. I also thought of a rope bridge that would take the place of the triangular carabiner. In other words, it would include all three attachment D's. I thought that it might better distribute the weight across the waist area, and avoid the pinch that comes from bringing the saddle to a single attachment point at the waist.

If you run across the post about the rope bridge, or have any more thoughts, please pass it on.

Here's the rope bridge modification by Caleb (Treezybreez):
http://treeclimbing.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=49&func=view&catid=278&id=135721#135851

Bear in mind that correct rope/cordage choice for the bridge is very important. A double-braid arborist rope is probably the best choice (for example NE Ropes Safety or similar 16-strand double braids). Nice thing about the mod is that if the rope bridge failed the climber would still be tied into their leg-strap D. Nice safety feature. Standard arborist harnesses with floating anchor bridges have no safety backup. The climber must inspect the bridge before every climb to verify safety.
-AJ

Hi guys,

Sorry to arrive so late but anyway...

I recently bought a Yellow Jacket saddle and had it shipped over to me in England. I too found that the waistband was too high and pinched the sides of my ribcage when hanging from it.

My solution was to shorten the length of the bridge between the leg loops by tying a length of webbing between them (see the black webbing above the original yellow leg loop bridge in the photo). Now when I'm hanging from the leg loops the waistband doesn't come up as far. I've adjusted the length of this secondary bridge so that the waistband is just below the ribcage.



Michael